


there i go, fumbling

by s-sokka (poesidone)



Series: Performing Arts Verse [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ballet, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Mutual Pining, Smoothie Girl, ballet dancers!azula and ty lee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26658520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poesidone/pseuds/s-sokka
Summary: Azula was good at everything. Really. There wasn’t anything she couldn’t do; she was smart, beautiful, funny, and ambitious. She had never failed at anything in her life.Except for this. This definitely counted as a failure. Azula had finally found the one thing that she wasn’t good at.Flirting.
Relationships: Azula & Ty Lee (Avatar), Azula/Jin (Avatar)
Series: Performing Arts Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939681
Comments: 12
Kudos: 57





	there i go, fumbling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iamnotalizard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamnotalizard/gifts).



> I promised Gabe a while ago that I would write a fic about the Smoothie Girl that I mentioned in IDADWY. So, I wrote it now to make up for bullying him into changing the ending of his fic from a sad one to a happy one. Thank you, Gabe, I hope you enjoy this!! 
> 
> Also! You don't need to read IDADWY to understand what's going on in this fic, it works fine as a standalone if you would rather not get invested in a 34 chapter Mailee fic!!
> 
> Thank you Stace (@ordinaryfruitpunch on tumblr) for beta reading!!
> 
> Title from "Oh No" by Softee

Azula was good at everything. Really. There wasn’t anything she couldn’t do; she was smart, beautiful, funny, and ambitious. She had never failed at anything in her life.

Except for this. This definitely counted as a failure. Azula had finally found the one thing that she wasn’t good at. 

Flirting.

It had started like this; Azula and Ty Lee had just gotten out of rehearsal and after a minutes long debate, they had decided to get smoothies before heading back to their apartment. Ty Lee had wanted to go to the tea shop, but Azula had wanted to get something quick and go home. She would never admit that she was tired, but that was okay because Ty Lee probably already knew, she was really good at reading Azula. Sometimes she felt like Ty Lee knew how she was feeling before she even knew herself.

Ty Lee definitely knew Azula was tired, so she eventually gave in to Azula’s will, which she was not known to do very often.

It was only after they stepped into the shop that Azula realized her mistake; the cute girl who made Azula blush every time she looked at her was working the register. Azula had frozen in the doorway right in front of Ty Lee, who had still been talking about her turnout in her pirouettes while looking down at her phone, and had crashed into Azula’s back, almost knocking her to the ground. The commotion had drawn the girl’s attention, much to Azula’s chagrin. She felt herself blush and prayed to the spirits that Ty Lee wouldn’t notice.

But, of course, she wasn’t that lucky, Ty Lee saw everything. As always. She had taken one glance at the blush on Azula’s cheeks and made the connection almost instantly.

“Ohhh, so this is why you wanted to get smoothies today, huh?” Ty Lee wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, which only made Azula blush more.

“No,” she protested. This really wasn’t why she had wanted to come here, in fact, this made her want to leave and go to the tea shop instead. “I actually think I changed my mind, let’s go get tea instead.” She tried to turn around and head out the door they had just entered in, but Ty Lee put out her arm and  stopped Azula before she could escape.

“Oh no, you’re not getting out of this that easily, Azula.” Ty Lee had an evil smirk on her face, really true evil. “In fact, you’re going to order our smoothies for us while I go sit down.”

“You wouldn’t.” Azula narrowed her eyes at Ty Lee, trying her hardest to be intimidating.

Unfortunately for her, Ty Lee was immune to that look by now, and she said, “Wouldn’t I, though?” before smiling an innocent smile and pivoting on her toes to turn to the seats in the pickup area.

Azula had never felt so betrayed in her life. From where she was sitting, Ty Lee would have a perfect view of Azula making a fool of herself in front of the cute smoothie girl. Evil.

So, here she was now, standing in front of the register attempting not to start blushing again.

“Hi! Welcome to Smooth(ly)! My name is Jin! What can I get for you today?” The girl, Jin, smiled brightly. Azula was startled to realize that she hadn’t known the girl’s name until just this moment, she had always been too anxious to even think about checking her nametag.

“Um, yeah, could I get a medium guava burner with a protein boost?” Azula decided to stick to her usual instead of trying to use her brain to actually read what the menu over Jin’s head said.

“Great!” Jin said as she tapped the order onto the screen. “And your girlfriend?”

“My what?” Azula blinked at her.

Jin motioned toward where Ty Lee was sitting, “Your girlfriend? What does she want to drink?”

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Azula rushed to correct her, and then rushed to clarify. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I’m not homophobic or anything! I’m a lesbian! I just mean that Ty Lee is  _ not _ my girlfriend! Not that she’s not lovely, but she’s my best friend and my roommate so it would be weird, probably. I love her a lot, just not like that, ya know?” Azula realized she was rambling and quickly snapped her mouth shut.

She thought Jin would be annoyed, but when she looked up she saw that the other girl was obviously trying valiantly to hold in a burst of laughter, which just felt worse. It felt even worse when the girl’s efforts failed and a bright and joyful peal of laughter came out of her mouth. It was a cute laugh, but Azula did not like being laughed at. Her frustration must have shown on her face because now it was Jin who was rushing to clarify herself.

“Oh no, I’m not laughing at you! I promise! I’m just laughing because I thought it was cute.” She winked and Azula’s brain short-circuited, it took her a moment to get it together enough to realize that Jin had asked her a question and she hadn’t been listening at all.

“I’m sorry, I zoned out there for a second. Could you repeat the question?” Azula tried to cover for her momentary loss of brain function, but she had a feeling she didn’t do a great job of it.

“I asked what your best friend slash roommate wants to drink.” Jin’s smile was sweet and Azula had to look away from her face so that she could think without getting distracted by it.

“She wants a medium green tea smoothie with a protein boost, as well.” Azula reported the information as she retrieved it from her memory.

“Did you guys just come from a workout? I can throw in an extra protein boost for both of you on the house if you want?” Jin looked at her from under her lashes and Azula was having a hard time keeping it together, she really was.

“Uh, yeah, that would be awesome. Thanks.” Azula knew she sounded stiff and awkward, but there was really nothing she could do about it. She realized that she hadn’t answered Jin’s first question. “Oh, and I guess we kinda came from a workout, in a way. We’re principal dancers at the Ba Sing Se Ballet.” She couldn’t help the hint of pride that crept into her words, she was understandably proud of her status as a principal dancer. And she was proud of Ty Lee, too. They had both earned it.

“Oh!” Jin’s eyes lit up and she leaned forward a bit over the register. “That’s so cool! Principal is like the lead, right? You must be really good!” she smiled at her.

Azula preened a bit. “We’ve both worked very hard to get to where we are in our careers. I started training when I was three years old and haven’t stopped since.”

“I’ve never been to a ballet, but I’ve always wanted to! Do you have one coming up soon?” Jin asked, putting her head in her hand and leaning her elbow against the register screen.

“Uh, I think your arm is on the screen there.” Azula hesitantly pointed out.

“Oh!” she perked up and looked down at the screen before quickly removing her elbow from on top of it. “Looks like I accidentally just charged you for 17 acai berry smoothies, sorry about that!” she laughed a little bit as she cleared the unwanted items off of the order.

“Sorry about that! Uh, can I get a name for the order?” she asked, looking expectantly at her.

“Oh, um, Azula.” 

“Ok, Azula, it’s gonna be $12 even.”

Azula handed her a twenty from her phone wallet and watched her as she opened the drawer and made change. Azula took in her shiny brown hair which was tied back and stuck out in a spiky ponytail from the back of her hat. Her equally spiky bangs hung out from under the front of her hat and framed her face extremely well. She wasn’t short, but she was shorter than Azula was. She had a really sweet smile and mesmerizing green eyes, both of which were now directed at her.

Both of which were now directed at her.

Azula pulled herself out of her observations, embarrassed to have zoned out while Jin was talking for the second time in this conversation. “Sorry, what was that?”

“I just said ‘here’s your change’.” she held out the $8 in change to Azula. Azula took the money and stuffed it into the tips jar without even pausing to think about it. She always put all of her change in the tips jar when she came here. Well, not always. Really only when Jin was working.

Jin pretended that she hadn’t seen this, which Azula appreciated. She had gotten a lot better at doing nice things for people, but she still had no idea how to react when they actually acknowledged those acts of kindness. That was something she was still working on in therapy.

“Your smoothies will be ready in a couple minutes if you want to go wait with your best friend slash roommate.” Jin put special emphasis on the words and Azula tried not to blush at the reminder of her earlier fumble.

“Okay, thank you.” She nodded, hopefully not too stiffly, and made her way over to where Ty Lee was seated, looking at Azula with a terribly smug grin on her face.

“Don’t say a word.” Azula warned as she flopped into the chair next to her, putting her dance bag on the table between them.

“Azula, she is so obviously into you! Why didn’t you make a move?” Ty Lee whispered, not wanting to be overheard, even though the sound of the blenders would have drowned out her words anyway. 

Azula leaned in closer to respond. “No, she wasn’t! I made a fool of myself! She probably thinks I’m weird and annoying.” she grumbled.

“Are you kidding me? I have never seen more obvious flirting in my life! She was literally batting her eyelashes at you!” Ty Lee’s voice started to rise above a whisper and Azula shushed her with a frown.

“Just because she was being nice doesn’t mean that she was flirting, it’s probably just really good customer service.”

Ty Lee groaned. “Okay, look, she asked you if we have a show coming up soon, didn’t she?”

Azula tried to recall the conversation. “Oh, yeah. I guess she did. Did I answer her?” Azula asked.

Ty Lee shook her head. “Nope!” she popped the p a little too hard for Azula’s comfort, she clearly had a plan and Azula was sure she wasn’t gonna like it. “So, here’s what you’re gonna do!”

Now it was Azula’s turn to groan. “Ty Lee, please don’t do this.”

“No, listen, this is a good plan!” she had a look of mischief and joy on her face. She reached into her dance bag to pull out the small notepad and pen she kept tucked away in one of the side pockets. “We’re gonna write your name and number on a slip of paper with the show dates for  _ La Bayadere _ and you’ll give it to her when you go to get our drinks! It’s a good plan, Azula!”

Azula wasn’t convinced and she made sure the look she was giving Ty Lee conveyed that effectively. Ty Lee rolled her eyes in response.

“Come on, what are you so afraid of? I promise she’s into you! Do you really think I would tell you to do this if I didn’t think it would work out? No! I wouldn’t!” Ty Lee got cut off by the blender turning off. She looked up to where Jin was pouring their smoothies into the styrofoam to-go cups, apparently she was the only one working today. It probably wasn’t too bad of a shift, Azula and Ty Lee were the only ones here, and it was a Tuesday evening in February, so it wasn’t very busy.

Ty Lee shifted her attention back to the notepad and started scribbling words down on it excitedly. “Okay,” she ripped the paper out and held it for Azula to take. “Just thank her for the smoothies and hand her this! Simple as that!”

Azula glared at the paper in Ty Lee’s hand for a moment before she huffed out a sigh and snatched it from her. “Fine, but if this ends up making me look like an idiot I’m blaming you.”

“You’re not gonna look like an idiot, just take a deep breath and go get the smoothies. You can do this!” Ty Lee whispered, giving Azula two thumbs up as she stood from the table and pushed in her chair. Azula turned her back to Ty Lee and walked up to the counter where Jin was already standing with their smoothies and a soft smile on her face.

“Hey, perfect timing! I was just about to call you over.” Jin pushed the two smoothies sitting on the counter in front of her closer to Azula so that she could grab them. Azula gave her a small smile as she reached for their drinks, before she remembered the paper Ty Lee had written on in her hand. 

“You asked earlier if we had any shows coming up soon and I didn’t get a chance to answer. So, uh, here’s some info about our next show.” she tried to sound confident as she held the paper out for Jin to take.

Jin’s smile grew as she reached out to take it from Azula’s hand. “Thank you! I’ll do my best to make it!”

Azula nodded. “I hope to see you there.” she looked back at Ty Lee who was grinning at the two of them like a madwoman. “Well, it looks like I need to go, but I hope you have a nice rest of your day.”

“You too!” Jin looked pleased as she slipped the paper into her apron pocket.

Azula turned and walked back over to where Ty Lee was sitting. Azula  rolled her eyes as Ty Lee  beamed at her.

“Shut up.” Azula muttered as she handed Ty Lee her drink and picked up her bag from the table.

“I didn’t say anything.” Ty Lee said smugly as she started her way towards the door. Azula followed after her.

“No, but you were about to.” Azula looked back over her shoulder as Ty Lee stepped out into the street. Jin had been wiping down the counter, but she looked up when the door opened and noticed Azula looking at her. She smiled and waved, and Azula was _ not _ blushing as she waved back. Not even a little bit.

Ty Lee sighed and tugged on Azula’s sleeve to pull her out of the shop. “Come on, we’re gonna miss the next bus if you don’t hurry it up!”

Azula stepped out into the street and let the door shut behind her as Ty Lee continued to drag her by the sleeve towards the bus stop at the corner. Azula could see that Ty Lee was right, the bus was approaching the stop.

“See, that went well! I told you she was into you!” Ty Lee chirped as she let go of Azula’s sleeve as they walked down the street. They arrived at the stop just as the bus doors were opening.

“Just because she didn’t laugh at me when I gave her the paper doesn’t mean she was into me.” Azula protested as she climbed the steps of the bus, following behind Ty Lee.

Ty Lee found the two of them a seat and settled down into it, taking a sip of her smoothie. “You know what? I’m glad we got smoothies, this is really good.” she took another sip as Azula sat down next to her.

Azula took a sip of her own smoothie. “Yeah, they make really good ones there.” she looked at Ty Lee to ask her if she preferred the green tea smoothie over the matcha one she usually got, but she was distracted by Ty Lee’s shocked expression. “What?” she questioned, confused.

“Azula,” Ty Lee sounded positively delighted. “Look at the side of your cup.”

Azula squinted at her in confusion before lifting her cup to see what Ty Lee was so pleased about. Written in black sharpie underneath the order name was a phone number and a small heart. Azula felt her jaw drop.

Ty Lee let out a high-pitched squeal and fist pumped the air. “I knew it! I told you!”

“Yeah,” Azula smiled, unable to hide it. “I guess you did.”

**Author's Note:**

> That's it, folks! Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> If you liked this, you might also enjoy the fic that this branches off from: i dreamed a dance (with you) !! It's a lot longer and it's Mailee, but there's lots of Azula and Ty Lee friendship in it!!
> 
> I'm @s-sokka on tumblr if you wanna come visit :)


End file.
